This is my husband’s aunt. She was a couple of years younger than my mother-in-law and her favourite out of 12 siblings. We only met her when she was almost 80 due to the fact that when the family had to flee from their home near Königsberg (nowadays Kaliningrad) they were separated and she ended up in town in the East and my mother-in-law in the West. Meeting her so late in life was a blessing but also an explicit reminder of what we had missed: she was full of humour and had a streak of mischief in her, often joking or even playing harmless tricks on her friends and family.

A Photo a Week: She’s Got the Look.